Certain metrology systems such as coordinate measurement systems (CMM's) can be utilized to obtain precise measurements of inspected workpieces and may be controlled at least in part by workpiece feature inspection operations that have been programmed on a computer. One exemplary prior art CMM is described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,438,746, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. As described in the '746 patent, the CMM includes a probe for measuring a workpiece, a movement mechanism for moving the probe, and a controller for controlling the movement mechanism.
A CMM which includes a surface scanning measurement probe is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,652,275 (the '275 patent), which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. After a scan, a three dimensional profile of the workpiece is provided. In one type of scanning probe, the workpiece is measured by a mechanical contact probe (e.g., a precise miniature ball) scanning along the workpiece surface.
Some CMM's use an optical probe which scans a workpiece without making physical contact with the surface. Optical probes may be of a type which may use points of light for detecting surface points (such as triangulation probes), or a type that uses a video camera, wherein the coordinates of geometric elements of the workpiece are determined via image processing software.
A “combined” coordinate measuring machine that uses both optical and mechanical measuring is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,951, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In various applications, a position of a measurement probe of a CMM (e.g., a tip of a stylus) may be controlled by operations on a computer display user interface or a separate set of joysticks or a hand wheel. It may be difficult or unintuitive for a user to understand the user interface and/or precisely move the measurement point while avoiding unwanted and dangerous collisions of hardware and workpiece components, especially if the user is inexperienced. It is therefore desirable to configure a CMM such that a user may manually move the measurement probe in an easy and intuitive manner.